Just As Hard
by iamLouieDaWeirdo
Summary: Fate is an asshole. The most unexpected things happen at the most unexpected times because of fate. Time is running out for Mikan and Natsume, Fate decided one day. But right now, Natsume has to deal with Mikan at the mall. That's basically the same thing as dying. Stupid, stupid fate.


**TO MY LOVELY JYN. Holla Chica. I apologize for the lateness of my gift. XD**

* * *

Mikan walked across the courtyard and settled down on the wooden oak chair in the library. She set her things down on her usual Mahogany table at the most secluded section of the library, the Occult section. She usually laughed when someone looks at her creepy for being there. But this wasn't the Occult section; this was the Mikan section, where Mikan and two other people do whatever the hell they want.

Today, a guy enters that very section and normally Mikan would've chased him away by now, but today, she couldn't care less if the school burned down, with her in it. Reality, you see, came crashing down at the worst moment. Mikan Brown was graduating and right after, she'll be taking a flight to New Jersey then Ontario, Canada.

For months she had been dreaming of moving in with her aunt there for College, as planned. But she had forgotten to tick off falling in love with Natsume Hyuuga, someone she thought she loved as a brother but had unknowingly yearned for. She wanted him. At the moment, her chest constricted, that very boy sat beside her.

"Why the long face, Lee?" He asked, eyes filled with concern.

"It-it's nothing really. I just realized that I'd be leaving right after graduation…" She drawled back, nestling her head in her arms.

"Which means you wouldn't be there for the grad party… bummer. This also means I may have to ask

someone else to go with me." Natsume said jokingly as he moved his chair nearer to his friend.

"Yeah, exactly." Mikan threw her hands up in the air. "No grad party for Hey hey." She added sarcastically as she reformed her human nest.

"Dude, chill. I can't attend either. I have swim camp two days after. And besides, do you really think I'd ever go to a party without my best friend tailing me and helping avoid fangirls, would you?" Natsume said as

he playfully punched Mikan's shoulder.

Mikan raised her head and said, "Can't you survive one party without me? What are you going to do without me Natsume?"

Natsume placed both hands over his chest and made an 'o' with his mouth as he screeched at her, "Well darl', I'd die, ofcourse. You're my everything, my love, my sweet."

"Hold on, I'm going to check up on my cousin Taylor before I leave for Canada and you're going to head for Swim Camp, correct?" She waited for him to nod before continuing. "Well, why don't we just book the same flight? The camp is only a few minutes out of the city anyway."

Natsume clapped his hands and started to drag Mikan out of the library. "Alright then. It's official; we're skipping class to buy those tickets." Natsume said.

"W-what!? Really Natsume? Can't this wait until AFTER class? I really don't wanna get in trouble again."Mikan stammered as she flailed her arms around.

"Do you want to get those tickets or not?" Natsume asked, still dragging her.

"Duh." She replied.

"Then, we, my dear, are skipping the rest of the day. Your treat." He stated gleefully, pushing her into a broom closet to avoid hall monitors and security guards.

As they were on their way to the school parking lot, Natsume did not let go of Mikan's hand once. Causing her to blush nonstop. When they reached Natsume's truck, only did Mikan realize that he held her hand, not smelly Nelly's. She smiled inside, knowing this fact.

By the time they got to the mall, it was the end of lunch period and Mikan's face was back to normal. She still couldn't believe it, she was riding Natsume's truck.

And then it dawned her, by leaving with Natsume, she left her own car at school, but then again,Natsume _is_ worth it...

* * *

After booking the tickets, they bought ice cream at a family run store called "McRenzie's."

"One chocolate cup and- Hey Lee, what'd you want?" Natsume asked.

"Oh, uh.. whatever you're having." she replied, scooting over to an empty booth near the door.

"Alright then, make that two flapjacks, scratch the ice cream..."

From Mikan's table, it seemed as though, Natsume was giving the cashier his number, which he has never done before and she was fuming with jealousy. Point one for Natsume for pulling the rug on Mikan unexpectedly.

Natsume never gave _her_ his number! He never had to, she was there then he got his phone. But still, it was _so _unfair that he gave that girl his number. And the lady accepted it!

This was happening. Mikan had lost her chance to be with _THE _Natsume Hyuuga.

Mikan relaxed her face as she fished out her phone to appear busy. Natsume turned around and grinned. He knew Mikan would think he was giving the cashier his number when he slipped that piece of paper over to her.

He walked towards Mikan and grabbed the phone out of her hands. "What was that for!?" Mikanscreamed.

As Natsume had expected, she was playing Pimple Pop, a game she only played if she were anything BUT happy.

"I didn't give her my number. Geez, all these years of being bros and you still don't trust me." He admitted, giving Mikan back her phone.

"She recognized me from that article in the newspaper when I won the chess tournament."

Mikan, still not believing it, started to enforce playing footsie with Natsume. Luckily, the boy complied.

"What are we doing?" Natsume asked. Mikan had no answer.

The ice was soon broken when the waitress came to deliver their order. Mikan stared long and hard at her plate.

Clearly written in the white chocolate syrup was a stringy line that said, "Will you wait for me?"

"What?" Mikan uttered in disbelief.

"Earth to Mikan, it's food. When you see food, you eat it. You don't just stare. It's rude."

Snapping back into reality, Mikan picked at her pancakes, carefully avoiding the syrup until there was nothing left but the plate. Thinking, Mikan grabbed a bottle of maple syrup and spread it all over the plate in a weird pattern. She passed it to Natsume who looked at her in confusion.

"I can't read it. It's a big puddle of gooey delight. You wasted time and effort. Not to mention, perfectly good syrup."

"Alright, fine. It was supposed to say, 'Why Wait?' because I did not get the thing with the syrup thing."

Natsume laughed, as usual, Mikan had found a way around the 'sticky' situation.

"It was supposed to ask you to wait for me. I've been planning to go to Canada for university too. I'm asking you to wait because it'll take time to move over there with you. "

Mikan threw him a confused look with her hazel eyes squinting and her soft lips pursed. "Why do you want to move anyway?"

"Well we sure as hell can't be _Natkan_ or _Miksume_ when we're apart."

"But we can call and skype and stuff! Like we do on the holidays, remember?" Mikan argued.

"Mikan, a few weeks ago, I overheard some little birds saying that you liked me. I wanted to know if it was real or not because _I LOVE YOU. _Not Luna Koizumi, not your friend Hotaru. I love _you._"

Mikan stayed silent. Too shocked to even respond with her usual facial reactions. For the first time ever,Mikan was completely dumbfounded.

Moments later, she found herself and whispered,"I... I sorta recprocate your feelings then..."

Natsume clapped his hands and grinned. "Now onto some more pressing topics! What was up with the footsie earlier."

He stared at Mikan intently. Mikan swallowed. At times like this, Natsume would be completely serious and 'no' would dissapear from his vocabulary in an instant.

"F-fine. I was jealous. No need to bring it up. So, are we gonna be awkward penguins now?" She asked, changing the topic.

"You're my girlfriend now, Mikan. But that doesn't mean I won't get you back for launching my English paper on 'Sherlock Holmes' into the sky with my Rocket project."

"And that means that as my boyfriend, I will expect you to be ready to shop with ,e at all times." Mikanfinished as she stuck out her tongue.

"Don't I already do that?"

"Touché. Today, we'll be buying grad gifts for everybody!" Mikan countered as she sood up and smiled at him.

She took Natsume's outstretched hands and pulled him up.

He sighed. "I keep forgetting I'm supposed to be the guy in this relationship." Hazel rolled her eyes at his exasperation.

"Haha. Very funny. I know what we should get Mr. Dumbledore! A beard chaver thing or one of those hair straightener irons you girls use."

"Just because our Physics teacher has the facial features of Ablus Dumbledore, doesn't mean we should get an iron for his hair. He'll look like Gandalf for crying out loud! Although, that IS tempting. I'll send him one for Christmas."

"But making him LOOK like Gandalf is the whole point!" Natsume explained.

Out of the blue, Mikan pulled him into the curb. "Shhh, Mrs. Higgens is on the prowl. We have to get rid of these dead giveaways!" She said, pointing to their navy blue uniform vests, yellow neckties and bottoms. The Alice Academy uniform made them stick out like a sore thumb.

"How?" Natsume asked.

"Shopping, duh." Mikan shrugged.

She checked the corridor for the head teacher then dashed for the department store with Natsumesneakily behind her. Right after they had regained their composure, Mikan dragged Natsume to the boys- excuse me- mens section.

In five minutes, Mikan had pushed Natsume into the changing room with a cluster of clothes. Moments later, he comes out wearing a plaid blue shirt , black pants, black converse and a gray fedora.

"Not bad but I suggest you try something else," The girl beside Mikan chirped.

Mikan nodded in agreement. "You, my dear Natsume, lack sense of style." She said, grabbing a jacket from a nearby rack. "Try this on while you're at it."

Natsume grunted as the girls laughed. From inside the cubicle, Natsume could hear Mikan and the girl chatting about their respective boyfriends. He inwardly sighed at how she could be so trusting towards a girl she had just met.

Neither of the girls noticed Natsume as he came out of the dressing rom wearing a tight-fitting green shirt that said "LIFE", a black hoodie and neon yellow converse. He glared at Mikan for a moment until he realized there was a guy doing the same to the girl she was talking to. 'That must be her boyfriend.'Natsume thought.

Natsume cleared his throat to get the girls attention. "Much better," Mikan noted, eyeing his choice of clothes.

"Hey, you should get the same shirt, Mikan. That way you guys could look like a bonafide couple! That's like the best way to solidify your status!" The girl now identified as Yanicka, suggested.

Mikan considered it for a second before grabbing a similar outfit to Natsume's. Soon they paid for their purchases and bade Yanicka and her boyfriend goodbye.

"Now that are disguises are done, it's time to get some serious shopping did!" Mikan announced.

Before Natsume could even utter the shortest word known to man, he was dragged into every store that

Mikan deemed had the perfect gift for so and so. For some reason uncomprehendable to Natsume, she had completely steered clear of the stores that sold sporting goods.

After about two hours of nonstop shopping, Natsume was about to collapse from the weight of all the gifts Mikan bought for everyone.

"Mikan, I think this is enough goodbye presents." He said, raising his arms overloaded by bags from various shops.

"I included Christmas presents, dummy. I'm trying to avoid Christmas rush." Natsume looked about to die as he crashed onto the nearest bench, letting out an exasperated sigh.

Mikan sat down with him and wiped his sweaty brow. "Awww, is the double letterman meanie giving up?" She teased.

"Shopping with you totals a weeks load of swim and track meets. I have no idea how you girls survive."

Mikan let out a laugh. "Stop lollygagging. If you want this to end earlier, you should man up. I'm almost done. One more store to go-" A disgruntled wail and the sound of shoes slamming onto granite floor exited Natsume.

"Grow some balls, man. Trust me, this last store is going to make you whoop in glee." Mikan convinced, pulling Natsume to his feet or atleast trying to.

As soon as he was mobile again, Mikan lead him into a nondescript door that looked like the entrance to the the mall's control room.

The moment Mikan pushed open the generic double doors, they were greeted with the scent of sawdust and baking flour.

"Where are we?" Natsume asked, basking in the view of random everyday baubles.

Mikan laughed as she helped him shrug off the multiple bags of gifts, setting them inside a small booth right beside the door.

"Remember the prank books I used to get everyone in freshman year?" Mikan mused, walking around the store.

"The one you wouldn't show me? Yeah." Natsume snapped back, following her around.

"Well," Mikan's eyes scanned the shelf of nearby books. "Aha!- Well, I got them from here. Every single prank I have ever done is taken and or modified from these books." She said, handing Natsume the book as she perused another stack of prank articles.

Natsume flipped through the book, seeing familiar pranks Mikan had done over the years. "Are you telling me that... this place... is... _THE JOKE SHOP?_"

"Took you that long to realize that, genius?" Mikan joked.

"How'd you ever find it-"

"My stars! Is that Mikan I see?" A voice asked from the counter of the small shop.

Mikan's neck craned to face the voice. As soon as she recognized its owner, she ran to hug the person.

"Anna!" she yelled.

"Hey there, Mikan! I see you've brought a friend..." Anna remarked, licking her lips with satisfaction.

"Sorry Anna. This one's mine." Mikan shrugged, placing an arm possessively on Natsume's hips.

Faster than an Avatar sex scene, the two were acquainted and were comparing past pranks while Mikanlooked around for graduation prank props.

"You know, your toy seems like quite the catch, Mikan. It'd be a shame if... someone... were to steal him, Mikan." Anna hollered as soon as Natsume excused himself to answer a phone call.

"Don't you dare, Anna." Mikan yelled from the other side of the store.

"Wouldn't dream of it hon. Although, I would like to know if a Yuu Tobita is hot and single..."

"Oh he is, Anna. He definitely is." Mikan winked.

"Girls, if you aren't done drooling over my mate, Mikan and I have to go." Natsume butted in, snapping the girls out of their Stanley Worthington-induced trances.

Mikan hurriedly paid for her stuff and left. Promising Anna to visit more often and to give Stanley her phone number.

As soon as they got into the truck, the conversation continued. "So, where are we headed?"

"Nowhere really. Just a drive." Natsume replied, starting the engine.

They both sat in comfortable silence, wrapped around their own personal bubbles.

After about ten minutes of solitude, Mikan broke the quiet air. "Oh my gosh. I just realized something!"

Natsume glanced at her momentarily before turning back to the road infront of him. "What?" He asked.

"We're dating!" She replied with utter shock.

Natsume laughed and took her hand into his. "It's feels good though, right?"

Mikan nodded, blushing at their intertwined hands, hoping they could stay in this moment forever. As if sensing Mikan's discomfort, Natsume brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.

Even though she was blushing redder than any tomato ever consecrated onto earth, Mikan found the courage to speak. "O-oh my god. Y-you have n-no idea how many times I've daydreamed about a moment like this."

Natsume smiled at Mikan and she smiled back. She couldn't wait until they could share their first kiss. It would take place somewhere beautiful, she decided. Somewhere magical and private so no one could ever tarnish that moment.

Before she could finish fantasizing about their lips mashing against each other, Mikan opened her eyes to look at Natsume. His face was lined with creases as he drove through the road. Heading somewhere Mikan could not comprehend.

Their eyes met for a second and Mikan thought of how graduation was only a few weeks away and how they were going to different colleges and how they were going to communicate with their schedules.

As if feeling her discomfort, Natsume squeezed her palm and set their hands together on her lap. And she knew, she didn't know how but she knew they were going to be just fine.


End file.
